Grains such as corn have long been used as a source of starch. One of the classic methods of separating the starch and then using it in other industrial processes is the wet-milling process. This method is a highly specific and integrated system developed to separate the major components of a grain kernel as completely as possible (see Stanley A. Watson, Starch: Chemistry & Technology, Vol. II, Industrial Aspects, Academic press, New York, 1967, pp 30-51). A final granular starch slurry coming out of the wet milling process can be used in a variety of industrial processes. One of the most important processes is the conversion of starch to high fructose syrup. In practice, this conversion involves four major steps; namely liquefaction of granular starch slurry, saccharification of the liquified starch into dextrose, purification, and then isomerization of dextrose into fructose. The most popular grain used in this process is corn in the production of high fructose corn syrup (See N. H. Asehengreen, et al, Vol. 31, pp 64-66 (1979)). During the four step conversion to fructose, the granular starch slurry is varied wildly in pH. The pH of the slurry coming out of the commercial wet-milling operation is about 4 then raised to a pH of from 6-6.4, and calcium is added. For saccharification of the starch the pH is lowered to 4.3-4.5 and for the final isomerization the pH is increased back to about 7.8. The result of these wide shifts in pH is a high ion exchange requirement to desalt the syrup during and after processing. Furthermore, high pH causes byproduct formation, sugar breakdown, color formation, and an overall decrease in product yield. The factors add millions of dollars annually to the cost of high fructose syrup production. The industrial isomerization process is currently very efficient due to current processing techniques and the short processing time. Accordingly, it would be useful if the liquefaction step could be carried out at lower pH's. It is possible to perform liquefaction at pH's less than 6 (see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,824); however, the liquefaction is sometimes unexplainably incomplete.